The ECHL’s Toledo Walleye earned their playoff series-opening victory against the Indy Fuel the hard way, with Tyler Barnes scoring 1:33 into double overtime as Toledo emerged with a 4-3 OT win.
Christian Hilbrich also scored 2 goals, Kyle Bonis had a goal and an assist, Simon Denis had 2 assists and Pat Nagle stopped 43 of 46 Fuel shots.
GRIFFINS TO FACE MOOSE IN CENTRAL DIVISION SEMIFINALS
GRAND RAPIDS, Mich. – The Grand Rapids Griffins will begin their defense of the Calder Cup against the Manitoba Moose in the best-of-five Central Division Semifinals. Seeding and the series schedule are still to be determined and will be announced no later than Sunday evening.
By virtue of Chicago’s 6-4 win at Rockford and Manitoba’s 3-1 loss at Cleveland tonight, Chicago has clinched the Central Division and the Griffins have been guaranteed a second- or third-place finish.
Grand Rapids currently stands second in the division with 91 points and leads the Moose by one. Grand Rapids can secure the second seed with a victory in tomorrow’s regular season finale on home ice against Cleveland at 7 p.m. Manitoba’s campaign concludes with a visit to Chicago on Sunday at 5 p.m. EDT.
The Griffins have won the last five games against the Moose and finished with a 6-2 record in the season series.
Single-game playoff tickets for the Griffins’ first two home games during the 2018 Calder Cup Playoffs are currently on sale and can be purchased at all Star Tickets locations, including The Zone, online through griffinshockey.com/tickets, by phone through Star Tickets at (800) 585-3737, or via the Griffins app for iPhone or Android.
Available for all playoff home games, Playoff 4-Packs include four or more tickets at a savings of $3 per ticket plus no service fees. To purchase a Playoff 4-Pack, visit griffinshockey.com/playoff4pack or call (616) 774-4585 ext. 2.
Fans who want to experience every Griffins game at Van Andel Arena during the 2018 Calder Cup Playoffs can now purchase a Griffins Playoff SuperPass. Enjoy the same great seat at significant savings plus the convenience of the “pay-as-we-play” method of payment. To reserve your Griffins Playoff SuperPass, visit griffinshockey.com/superpass or call (616) 774-4585 ext. 2.
Groups of 10 or more can receive special pricing to playoff games and receive an unforgettable experience. To book a group outing during the 2018 Calder Cup Playoffs, visit griffinshockey.com/group or call (616) 774.4585 ext. 4. Playoff suites and other premium areas are also available.
When the Wings were cleaning out their lockers on Tuesday, Mantha was asked what he needed to work on this offseason to build on his 48-point season in which he led the Red Wings with 24 goals.
“I will be doing a little bit of power skating for sure, you can never get enough speed or edge work so that’s going to be one thing and work on some grit in the offseason,” Mantha said. “I talked with (coach Jeff Blashill) and (general manager Ken Holland) this morning, so maybe do a couple boxing lessons to maybe get that grit going for next year.
“It’s really more for the grit to find that extra, maybe to get angry a little bit more, not necessarily to fight next year, that’s not the message they want, they just want extra grit.”
This will not be the first time Mantha has stepped into the ring. Two years ago, he spent the summer in Detroit adding muscle. He also took a few boxing lessons and during his junior days, he dabbled a bit in pugilism.
According to Mantha, boxing is “actually a good workout program.”
Okay, among this afternoon’s blog-related items of note:
1. I finally installed a “Commenter Ignore Button,” [edit/update: which we will try on an interim basis /end edit]. If you click a little “X” next to the name of the commenter with whom you have a philosophical disagreement, that commenter should be ignored. If you have any bugs with the plug-in, please let me know as there are several “ignore” plug-in available on WordPress;
2. Ideally, I would like to keep everybody around community-wise, which should be easier with an “ignore” button…
But there were 20 comments that didn’t make the cut due to what WordPress flagged as inappropriate content while I was ill, and when I go through them, I may find some information that requires me to “prune the tree.” I don’t want to do it, but there are some basic rules of decency and polite discourse which apply to everybody. As I’ve said previously, I’m running a benevolent dictatorship here, not a democracy:
3. Regarding the website design and logo design, this is the LAST LAST CALL for any ideas. I’m looking for a 500 px by 150 px “banner” and a 150 px by 150 px “seal” logo…and web design-wise, I’ve got two people who’ve stepped up, but I’ll listen to pitches.
It’s time to get to some fan voting and get that shit done. The logo that ends up getting used will afford me the ability to both make the blog easier to read and to get some business cards to spread the word about the new blog…
4. I am very proud of the fact that I’m earning over a hundred bucks a month thanks to generous readers in terms of crowdfunding, but my goal remains to make $800-to-$1,000 a month (which ain’t all that much, all things considered) without having to resort to embedding ads on the page.
I’m not asking for much by today’s standards–I’ll take any denomination from a buck on up, and $5 or $10 would be awesome–but there are about 400 of you who follow the blog on a daily basis, and I need to make a successful pitch to about 200 of you at the $5 level to honestly make this work over the long haul.
It sucks to have to ask for money, but that’s the way this model works, and I’ll have to start asking on a more regular basis. I don’t expect funds to increase by more than $5 or $10 at a a time, but by the end of the year, I’d really like to be making what is a livable wage for me.
Again, if you’re not willing or able to contribute, the best thing I can possibly ask you to do is to tell a friend or family member that this blog exists!
5. Speaking of crowdfunding, I’m going to head to Grand Rapids tomorrow to attend the Griffins’ regular-season finale against the Cleveland Monsters. Gas and supplies for the 240-mile round trip cost about $50, so if you’re willing to lend a hand, cool. Either way, this will be the first of what I hope are many trips to Grand Rapids this spring (and maybe one or two to Toledo?).
This was an awful year health-wise and a difficult year $-wise, so I didn’t get to games as I’d hoped, but I hope to make up for that during the spring playoff runs, the hockey gods willing.
6. Also in the content department, I’m still considering whether to do Wings grades as I don’t want to generate disagreement for the sake of discussion. Thus far, the MSM grades have generated a fair bit of vehement disagreement, but very little in the way of discussion.
As far as I’m concerned, the only way to grade a team with stats as bad as the Wings had this past season and with contracts as bad as the Wings had this past season is to “grade on a curve,” because there are only one or two players who fulfill the expectations created by their contracts, and on a team that had a season’s worth of negatives in the statistical department like the Wings…Things ain’t pretty.
7. Those are all the thoughts on my mind at present (blog-wise)…If you have any concerns, regarding the comments section, regarding content, you name it, please send me a Tweet, Facebook message or email. I respond most quickly to emails and Tweets, and in the constructive criticism and/or venting-about-so-and-so instances, privacy can empower a reader to weigh in with their concerns.
So proud of the @OHLRangers last night against the @StingHockey the boys raised their level of play above taunting and racism against @givanismith24 yes, we saw it… It was disgraceful, you raised your level of play and out-classed the haters. Well done Givani! ?
The Sting have a major Givani Smith headache right now. There isn’t enough Tylenol in the world to make him go away.
The Kitchener power forward threw his team on his back in the third period Thursday, turning a tied contest to the Rangers favour with a late goal and assist to wrestle back home-ice advantage with a 5-3 Game 4 victory before 4,289 Thursday at Progressive Auto Sales Arena. The best-of-seven OHL Western Conference semifinal is tied 2-2.
“He’s a big man,” Sarnia associate coach David Legwand said of Smith. “He can make plays down there (in the offensive zone). I thought we did a good job in the series so far (against him). Obviously tonight didn’t go the way we wanted. The first four games don’t mean anything now. Go to Kitch and win a hockey game (Friday).”
Sting centre Drake Rymsha, drilled from behind by Smith on his opening shift, tried to go after him at the final buzzer. Smith had everyone riled up, as usual. If you’re looking for him, he’s usually parked right in front of Sting goalie Justin Fazio, jabbing at him with his stick.
“He loves it,” Kitchener coach Jay McKee said. “I wish he enjoyed it less. We had the refs come over and talk to us about him many times — just stuff in between whistles. My response is that’s what we traded for. We wanted an energy guy who gets in the heads of other guys and he plays hard.”
McKee and Sarnia coach Derian Hatcher spent most of their hockey careers trying to stop players like Smith. It’s emotionally, mentally and physically draining.
“He can wear you down, especially junior (d-men) because of how he’s built,” McKee said. “We saw him a lot when he played with Guelph and our guys didn’t enjoy playing against him.”
The Plymouth Observer’s Tim Smith penned an excellent article regarding the U.S. Under-18 team, which is heading to Magnitogorsk, Russia to participate in the Under-18 World Championship:
After reaching the first of two top-notch hotels the U.S. team will stay in while in Russia, players will be urged to kick back before kicking it up once they reach the rink.
“It’s going to be a little bit different,” [Drew] DeRidder said. “The food’s not going to be great. It’s going to be a little bit different atmosphere than what I’m used to here. You just got to eat the food, stay hydrated (by drinking bottled water), stay rested and make sure we’re doing everything we need to do.”
USA Hockey will make sure players stick to the script as much as possible, already having gone to great lengths to reassure players and their families that they’ll be safe.
One area of previous concern was a reported cloud of radiation hovering over much of Europe, but the all-clear sign was given several weeks ago.
“A few kids were worried about it, but I’m not worried about it anymore and the coaches have done a good job keeping us informed and telling us it’s not a problem,” DeRidder said. “I trust them. They’re not going to bring us somewhere where we’re going to be in any harm or anything like that.”
Contract: One year remaining at a $5.3 million cap hit.
He started well and had some good stretches but lacked consistency and posted the worst goals-against average of his career while his save percentage declined from .927 last season. None of the goalies in the system are close to being NHL-ready, so the club might sign Howard to a short-term extension before next summer.
The Grand Rapids Griffins are keeping their collective foot on the team’s gas pedal as the regular season winds down.
Dylan McIlrath and Dominik Shine scored 2 goals apiece, Filip Hronek scored, Libor Sulak registered his first assist and Tom McCollum stopped 36 of 38 shots as the Griffins won 6-2 over the San Antonio Rampage on Thursday night.
